Regional

10:46 pm

Fri June 25, 2010

Smuggling Tunnel Found In El Paso

El Paso – U.S. officials have discovered a smuggling tunnel running under the Rio Grande from Mexico into the United States, the first such underground passage found in the region.

U.S. Border Patrol spokesman Doug Mosier said a sensor technician and border agent discovered Friday the crude 2-by-2-foot tunnel, which connects to a drainage tunnel at the border in El Paso.

The tunnel was discovered after agents found a teenager from Mexico with about 200 pounds of marijuana and noticed a hole in the cement drainage pipe at the border. The dark, unventilated tunnel led south under the Rio Grande into Mexico.

Mosier said Mexican officials are working to locate the tunnel on the Mexican side of the border.